


Acceptance

by stellacanta



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Gen, World of Ruin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-20
Updated: 2020-11-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 07:14:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27639386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stellacanta/pseuds/stellacanta
Summary: Ever since the darkness fell, Coctura had taken to looking across the bay to scan for any sign of the sun rising again. The waters of the bay were as black as the endless night that had befallen the land, and the horizon held no hint of daybreak. She sighed and trudged forward towards the pier and the small motorboat that was tied to the end.
Kudos: 6
Collections: Lost in Wars - A FFXV World of Ruin Zine





	Acceptance

**Author's Note:**

> Ah sorry for taking so long to post this to ao3, but this was my piece for the Lost in Wars zine. I hope everyone enjoys it :)

Ever since the darkness fell, Coctura had taken to looking across the bay to scan for any sign of the sun rising again. The waters of the bay were as black as the endless night that had befallen the land, and the horizon held no hint of daybreak. She sighed and trudged forward towards the pier and the small motorboat that was tied to the end. 

In the beginning, there was hope they would make it through, that maybe the sun would hang in a state of perpetual twilight. That hope had long since vanished as the days grew shorter until they finally faded into an eternal night. Many had died. Some by the claws of the demons, others by their own hand when they could bear the torment no more. Those that remained did so simply because surviving was the only way they knew to go forward. There were few left that held out any hope that the promised king would return. 

Coctura kept a careful ear out for daemons as she walked to the end of the pier and untied the boat. The lights around Galdin Quay were all but nonexistent with the weak generators they had rigged up, and she had gotten attacked by imps with sharp claws before. When the boat was finally untied she looked back towards the Quay and frowned at how empty the place was. It was so unlike the vibrant resort town that it had been ten years ago.

When the power to Galdin Quay was finally lost, people fled towards the safer environs of Hammerhead and Lestallum as fast as they could. (They were the only places with light, and therefore safety, after all.) She couldn’t blame them for leaving, but, as someone who had grown up along the Vannath Coast, it pained her to see the place deserted all the same. 

It was just her and Dino in Galdin now, and she hadn’t heard back from Dino in a while.

She closed her eyes briefly before jumping onto the boat. The motor roared harshly when she tugged it on and navigated her small vessel towards a barely visible island in the distance.

…

There was a glaive waiting silently by the badly rigged up dock on Angelguard. The glaive, a man that she knew to be around Prompto’s age, simply waited with hands clasped in front of him as she tied the boat to the dock before heading ashore. Behind him, the rock formation that looked like a pair of wings was all but invisible in the darkness. 

When she reached where the glaive was standing, she handed out to him the cloth wrapped package she had pulled from the boat. “Provisions for the week,” she said as cheerfully as she could before the glaive hesitantly accepted it from her. “Sorry if it seems lighter than last week’s. Fresh vegetables are getting harder and harder to find. I’m basically reliant on potatoes, carrots, and whatever else I can dig out of the ground mostly, and the fish seems to be of- worse quality than before.” 

There was a brief hesitation in her voice, one she hoped the man didn’t catch. It was true that the fish weren’t as lively and whole as they had been before, but she didn’t want to explain how truly nightmarish some of them had turned. Or how she had once thrown something she had caught back in the water from the sudden fright it gave her. The creature had so many sharp teeth and seemed half rotted. It was definitely unsuitable for consumption.

She couldn’t help but wonder if that was the fate that would befall them all, with no sunlight and scourge slowly spreading to everything in the land. Coctura shuddered at the thought.

Carefully, the man unwrapped the package and peeked into the food container held inside. The glaive was careful to keep his expression mostly nonchalant, but Coctura could still catch the corners of his mouth curling in a faint smile. “It will do,” the man replied simply. He just as carefully closed the food container and rewrapped the package. “We still haven’t finished the meal you prepared for us last week you know.”

“Oh.” Coctura felt taken aback by the news. “Was it bad or-”

The glaive shook his head and offered her a wry, but gentle grin. “No, we’ve just been- busier, more restless, I guess you could say. Keep forgetting to eat. Haven’t really felt the desire to.” The glaive held the package against his chest as if it were a precious thing like a baby or a chest of gold instead of a simple package of food. “But thank you for bringing food to us again, it’s been an honor to have such delicious food prepared for us by hand. I doubt some of us know how to cook and well-” He glanced around the island. “-it’s not as if there’s much growing here anyway.”

Coctura followed the glaive’s gaze. The island was rocky and desolate, and what few moss and lichens that clung to the rock didn’t look to be appetizing, much less filling. “I see.” She turned back to the glaive, “well, it’s an honor to be able to help the glaives on their important task, even if help is just cooking a simple meal for you all.” Coctura dropped the cheerful facade as she looked behind the man at the group of glaives that seemed huddled in a group further up ahead. “How are things going right now, if I may ask?”

The man closed his eyes and shrugged. “The same as they have been, I suppose.” He opened his eyes, which seemed suddenly so much more older and tired behind his glasses than they had been before. “It’s been so long that we’ve stood vigil here that we’ve forgotten exactly how long it’s been, or what the sunlight used to feel like on our skin. And yet-” He took a shaky breath and looked down at the package in his hands. “-we still hold out hope that the king will awaken.” He looked up at her suddenly, pushing up his glasses which had slipped down the bridge of his nose. “Soon, we think. It’s been so long. His journey must finally be at an end.”

“How,” she blurted out suddenly, surprising herself. “It’s been years since the promised king disappeared and the sun went away. How can you still hold out hope when it seems like there’s none to be had?”

The glaive simply held out one arm in front of him. Coctura’s eyes widened when she saw how ashen it was. The black veins on the unnaturally pale skin looked almost like cracks on porcelain. The skin itself seemed to be darkening on the edges. “Because we are like this and yet we still live,” the glaive said simply, in explanation. “Because we were bound here by the Bladekeeper himself to keep vigil over the Crystal while the King of Light sleeps for our transgressions. A pact that will only unbind upon the promised king’s awakening.” 

The glaive pulled his arm back. “I understand that you are afraid, and you are right to be, but I implore you-” He smiled at her softly, like a caring father might to a frightened child. “-have faith. The promised king  _ will _ return, and, with his return, the dawn will break across the land again.” 

The sound of a name being called caught the glaive’s attention suddenly. He turned towards the group of glaives further up the path who were now staring at them. One of the glaives, a woman whose hair was tied up in a messy bun, stood with one hand on her hip and the other waving towards the man. The man waved back to her before looking back at Coctura. “I am being called away. Thank you again for the food, and may your return journey be without peril.” He gave her a brief grin, and then left to rejoin his companions.

Coctura watched as the man trudged up the path to where the other glaives stood before heading back towards the boat tied up on the pier. Faith, huh? She caught sight of the dark veins on her own hands, the skin of which seemed to be slowly fading into the darkness around them, as she finished untying the boat from the pier. 

Coctura chuckled to herself as she looked across the bay towards where Galdin Quay could be faintly seen. She supposed she could hold onto hope that the dawn would return one day. It was, after all, a beautiful dream to hold onto.


End file.
